Angela Guinther

Tales of the City

If you would like to get lost in some engrossing, not-wanting-it-to-end summer reading featuring a multitude of bohemian, eccentric, and well drawn characters whose lives play out over the decades, I suggest the you get started on the 'Tales of the City' novels by Armistead Maupin. The tales, which began as a serialized newspaper column in the San Francisco Chronicle in the 1970s, feature Cleveland's own Mary Ann Singleton (Laura Linney played her in the miniseries), a not-so-bohemian visitor to San Francisco who decided to stay and now lives in the apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane presided over by the very bohemian Anna Madrigal. Part comedy of manners, part mystery, and part soap opera (a really good soap opera) the first six novels will leave you wanting to read more about the occupants of Barbary Lane. Fortunately, Maupin picked up the stories of the three main characters again many years later, the latest just published earlier this year. I suggest you get hooked! The novels are: Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, Babycakes, Significant Others, Sure of You, Michael Tolliver Lives, Mary Ann in Autumn, and The Days of Anna Madrigal.

If you would like to get lost in some engrossing, not-wanting-it-to-end summer reading featuring a multitude of bohemian, eccentric, and well drawn characters whose lives play out over the decades, I suggest the you get started on the 'Tales of the City' novels by Armistead Maupin. The tales, which began as a serialized newspaper column in the San Francisco Chronicle in the 1970s, feature Cleveland's own Mary Ann Singleton (Laura Linney played her in the miniseries), a not-so-bohemian visitor to San Francisco who decided to stay and now lives in the apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane presided over by the very bohemian Anna Madrigal. Part comedy of manners, part mystery, and part soap opera (a really good soap opera) the first six novels will leave you wanting to read more about the occupants of Barbary Lane. Fortunately, Maupin picked up the stories of the three main characters again many years later, the latest just published earlier this year. I suggest you get hooked! The novels are: Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, Babycakes, Significant Others, Sure of You, Michael Tolliver Lives, Mary Ann in Autumn, and The Days of Anna Madrigal.